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[1992-12-13-AJW] Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue


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  • 5 weeks later...

(Tag Leauge The Best 92 FINAL) Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada

Aja & Kyoko came prepared and have swank new matching team gear. Toyota & Yamada quickly try and turn things into a sprint early on but Aja smash ends that mess. Match instead settles into a long stretch of Kyoko & Aja having the time of their life torturing Yamada. Lots of awesome little touches during this part, lots of cheap shots and taunting. Aja bends Yamada over her knee and Kyoko just saunters in and steps on her throat really just for fun. They do the camel clutch/punt spot and Aja with Aja making fun of Toyota. Later on Kyoko puts Yamada in the Romero Special and Aja just walks in and screams at her to give up in another cool moment. All the while Toyota looks on with a sad look on her face whining like "awwwww ref, come on, do something, no fair". Really makes you apreciate OZ as a tag parter even more, she'd have just run in and punched somebody in the face instead :) Toyota finally hot tags in and goes bonkers but Aja & Kyoko were prepared for it and dodge all her shit for a while until Toyota's endless energry wins out and she eventually gains controll. Yamada tags back in for some sweet revenge, the look on her face getting to do the camel clutch/punt spot on Kyoko is priceless. Soon after the Super Maniacs again shut things down and take back over however. Kyoko blitzes her and then Aja drags her outside and spends a good deal of time tossing her around the building, throwing her into fans, smashing chairs and tables and doors and handbags and anythin else she can find upside her head. Kyoko looks on from the ring amused, Toyota stays in the corner like a good girl with her thumb up her ass doing nothing until Aja's done with her at which point she goes over and pats Yamada on the back like "thear thear, you can do it, I believe". 20 mins in and 85% of this has been all Aja & Kyoko. However, they make the mistake of leaving Yamada outside long enough to recover so when she gets back in she's quite pissed and starts murdering ppl with kicks and suplexes and her & Toyota finally get to rally and make their big comeback. Rest of the match is the usual back and forth big move a thon you'd exspect. Some highlights being Aja catching Toyota off a dive and turning it into a giant powerslam in one motion. Nice sunset powerbomb from Toyota on Aja. Double head butt misses for Yamada & Toyota and they eat the tandem spinning powerbomb after. Brutal choke slam from Aja on Toyta almost wins it but Yamada saves. Ending comes down to Kyoko & Toyota, after Aja breaks up a moonsault attempt, Toyota tries to go for the JOCS but it gets blocked by Kyoko and they spill outside, Aja again saves things, Yamada gets taken out and Aja goes nuts sensing this is their chace and starts screaming at Kyoko to finish her with the Niagra Driver. Kyoko hits it but last second Yamada rushes in one last time, again she gets tossed aside and this time Toyota gets pinned after they hit the doomsday elbow. Toyota weak link theme continues I see. Post match is aswesome, Aja & Kyoko celebrate, Toyota & Yamada recieve a 2nd plce trophy which Yamda accepts alone, 3rd place team Debbie (rocking some sweet Zubaz) and Sakie and 4th place team Hotta & Suzuka recieve consolation prizes too. The entire rest of the roster comes out and Kyoko spazes out and leads everyone in a happy happy "zenjo cha cha cha" chant. ENITRE time this is going down, like 6-7 mins, Tyota's just standing off in the corner, head completely down, sad and depressed while Yamada looks on angirly. Brilliant. Their tag title match from a few months earlier was much better but yeah, this was still pretty damn great in it's own right.

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You preferred 7/15?

 

I didn't. I think this is sensational, right up there with just about any AJW tag and Top 5 MOTYC for the company (and almost certainly Top 10 for the year as a whole worldwide). A perfect way to wrap up an incredible year of progress.

 

Hokuto/Takako before this is a whole lot of fun too.

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  • 1 month later...

It's hard for me to not see everything in the context of Dream Rush. The staredown between Kong and Yamada before the match is a good start. Yamada's been through so much in the previous few months that there's not really anything Kong can do to scare her. The action is hot and heavy to start, then slows down a bit when they isolate Yamada from Toyota and start working her over with holds. Kong in particular is really fun, furthering personal issues with Yamada, and when Kyoko has Yamada in a surfboard, Kong calmly enters the ring and talks trash to Toyota, daring her to save her partner. She then starts screaming in Yamada's face while she is in this agonizing position before the ref finally persuades her to leave the ring. She has all the cockiness you'd expect from a new champ. This whole time, they are building a hell of a comeback for Yamada. She gets in brief hope spots but falls just short of a full comeback every time. Finally, Toyota gets tagged in and you think this is going to be the big comeback, but Kong outfights her and Kyoko outsmarts her. And it's here I realize how great the booking is in AJW, because these four have crossed paths in so many different settings throughout the years and have all had their own stories going on, and now they're bringing those experiences to this match. Toyota and Yamada finally getting Kyoko where they want her feels weirdly therapeutic. And just when you think Toyota and Yamada are getting somewhere, Kyoko fights back and pushes Yamada out of the ring where Kong drags her all over the arena and throws chairs at her, in what you might as well call a signature spot at this point. So there's the awesomeness -- every time you think you are seeing the big heroic comeback from Toyota and Yamada, they keep cutting it off at *just* the right moment. Down the final stretch, things get really great, especially when Toyota ends up powerbombing Kong through sheer happenstance. Kong stopping the Toyota pinfall on Kyoko at the last ... millisecond was an amazing close call. Yamada managing to do the same just a couple of minutes later was great too. I would have liked this more if Toyota and Yamada went over since the match seemed to be building to that, with them overcoming odds in a big way, but this was still an outstanding match.

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And it's here I realize how great the booking is in AJW, because these four have crossed paths in so many different settings throughout the years and have all had their own stories going on, and now they're bringing those experiences to this match.

 

I would have liked this more if Toyota and Yamada went over since the match seemed to be building to that, with them overcoming odds in a big way, but this was still an outstanding match.

3/15/1992 Toyota & Yamada over Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami in UWA tag title match

 

3/20/92 Toyota & Yamada over Aja & Bison to win the 3WA tag belts in the double title match with the UWA tab belts also on the line

 

4/25/1992 Toyota over Kyoko - Toyota wins IWA title

 

4/29/1992 Toyota & Yamada over Kyoko & Hotta

 

6/27/1992 Toyota & Yamada over Hokuto & Kyoko in 3WA tag title match

Sub story of Kyoko & Hokuto being on & off friends of Bull but not liking each other

 

7/15/1992 Toyota & Yamada over Aja & Kyoko in tag title match

Sub story of Bison being injured by Aja in their JGP match, Aja is allowed to pick a replacement so she comes to the ring and shockingly calls out Kyoko, her #1 rival's top protoge who had allready wrestled earlier in the night to be her partner. Easily the #1 thing that ended up falling through the cracks for this set. Great match, like I mentioned above I thought it was easiy better then this one. Also has the FMW girls invading post match & chaos erupting in the angle that actually kicked off the whole interpromotional era.

 

8/30/1992 Aja over Toyota to win JGP

 

9/11/1992 Aja & Sakie over Toyota & Yamada - Aja pins Toyota

 

10/17/1992 Hotta & Suzuka over Toyota & Yamada - Hotta pins Toyota

 

11/4/1992 Kyoko & Takako over Toyota & Yamada - Kyoko pins Toyota

 

So yeah, lot leading up to this match and I only mentioned a few highlights from this year, ton happened in 91 too. Def one of the better booked promotions in the world at the time. Funny to think about how I used to have the opposite opinion years ago, thinking AJW was a promotion full of great matches but the booking was very bland/non existent when nothing could be further from the truth.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

So was this like a Champion's carnival thing? What's the deal with the end and the whole roster coming out to chanting?

Tag League final. Post match is 2nd, 3rd place and other award presentations. Rest of the roster coming out was just a year end/company rally/we're the best/we're gonna kick the other companies ass type thing.

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  • 10 months later...

Kong and Kyoko were quite dominant with Yamada taking a long beatdown early. Going 27m was overlong. There was a fun segment with everyone dodging Toyota's dropkicks. Her psionic abilities never did seem to work on Aja. I always call them the psionic dropkicks. Manami is even more extraordinary than you could have imagined. Overall it was in the G-VG range with decent work from all and a nice stretch. A worthy BLT (Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato) final, and a fitting way to round off the 1st year of Zenjo's 92-95 golden era.

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  • 1 year later...

A very good closing chapter on a terrific year for joshi in '92. AJW, with some help, picked up the slack in a major way as the other promotions fell off from their unsustainably great first half of 'the year. I really liked how they went through a big closing stretch where the only big "finishing" move that actually hit was Kyoko's Niagara Driver. Everything else--Kong's backfist, Toyota's JOCS, and Yamada's Gory bomb--was attempted, teased, and countered, sometimes more than once, but never hit. Great way to get those moves over as killers while also educating fans that falls can happen on other moves, too.

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  • 2 months later...

Wow was this incredible. I think its my #2 joshi match of the year, falling just behind Dream Rush primarily b/c Dream Rush had Oz (and Kansai) who made that so special and unique, though obviously that's not slighting this at all.

 

After Kyoko accidentally takes out Kong, Toyota moonsaults her to the floor within the first minute. When things settle its time for Yamada to get destroyed, and she is absolutely picked apart with a very focused offense on her back. Kong is even in with the stiff kicks while Kyoko has her in a camel clutch and then proceeds to tell Yamada & Toyota she means business. Then comes the predictable hot tag for Toyota to go on a big run. Except Kong & Kyoko avoid her dropkicks, cut her off and go to work on her back! That was an absolutely awesome twist and one of my favorite moments in a big match on this set. Yamada returns in a nice bit of symmetry with the same kicks on Kong that she ate earlier in the match. Kong isn't down for long, as she beats Yamada all around ringside. In the only real flaw you can find if you're looking for one, Yamada seemed to come back from this a on Kyoko a bit quickly and punishes her with 5 backdrop suplexes. There weren't many near falls to this point which made the ones down the stretch even bigger. Yamada attempts the Gori Especial on Kyoko but Kong clocks her with the garbage pail and the pace picks up from here on out. This was built so well. Kong misses a uraken and eats a backdrop suplex, but catches Toyota coming off the top into a powerslam. A choke slam to Toyota only gets 2. Toyota with a near fall on Kyoko but eats a power bomb for one before kicking out. Toyota's moonsault feels like the finish but only gets 2 before Kong breaks it up in a great save. Yamada saves Toyota on a jumping powerbomb. Then Kyoko gets one of the year's big wins, hitting her jumping elbow onto Toyota off of Kong's shoulders.

 

The crowd is chating for Kyoko afterwards into the post-match with the trophy presentation. Other teams come to the ring as well, where Kyoko apparently is cracking everyone up on the mic. The other girls also seem to enjoy her schtick. Wish I knew what she was saying. Gets everyone in on a zenjo chant before we fade. I absolutely loved this.

 

****1/2

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  • 2 years later...

I thought this was decent enough, especially the sections where Aja and Kyoko worked over Yamada's back. But I've been wondering why this style doesn't really connect with me outside of the heavyweights like Aja and Bull, and I'm starting to realize that, as exciting and fast-paced as this promotion is, it has to have the most repetitive house style in wrestling. At least 75% of the offensive moves are suplexes, and about ten percent are dropkicks. That doesn't leave room for a whole lot else, at least but my math. I'm sure other promotions have a house style too, but in AJW it's really noticeable, particularly in long matches like this one. Repetitive doesn't equal boring and unwatchable in this case, but it still grates on my nerves. Aja and Bull are the exceptions that prove the rule, and that's why they stand out.

 

It could be just the way I saw things, but I think Toyota was trying to sell being knocked silly at the end of the bout, not just sadness over losing the tournament. I didn't catch any real anger from Yamada either; she looked to be concerned for Manami's welfare, as taking an elbow in the chops like that tends to scramble a few brain cells. The Doomsday Device looks more impressive due to the bump most guys take from it, but this move looks like it can do just as much damage, if not more.

 

I would have loved to be able to understand Japanese during the postmatch ceremony, as Kyoko really seemed to be on a roll. But why was she the spokesman for the group and not Aja, who is, after all, the new champion?

 

Do we have any matches between Aja and Yamada in '93? It sure looks like that could be a major feud, with the amount of trash talking Aja was doing to Yamada at times during this match.

 

Toyota was probably too much of a goody two-shoes; I can understand not wanting to make saves on every move the other team does, but she could have done more than stand on the apron and look concerned at least once or twice.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1992-12-13-AJW] Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue
  • 1 year later...

Yamada taking the beating...I'm ok with this, that means there's less screaming from Toyota!  Aja Kong had me dying multiple time in this match, the kick while Yamada is in camel clutch and her taunting...so good.  Kyoko's definitely the workhorse in this match, she makes this match great.  Really nice finishing stretch, crowd was super into it.  ZENJO CLAP CLAP CLAP ZENJO CLAP CLAP CLAP.

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